Frances Tiafoe Quotes

I don't believe that the American dream should be reserved for those who are born into the elite or somehow have been given an advantage over others. My growing-up experience is probably the most important thing that guides my priorities and my work today.

Our country has become the land of opportunity to those born without inheritance.

When I ascended from the depths of the working class to the middle class, the higher I got, the more dishonesty I found.

Some young people can rely on a privileged background and great connections to get work experience, but I don't believe anybody can be guaranteed success nowadays.

You really have to prove yourself and prove your worth. I didn't come from family that had been here for generations and had all these connections.

Outside of the family, education is the greatest determinant of social mobility.

Americans have so far put up with inequality because they felt they could change their status. They didn't mind others being rich, as long as they had a path to move up as well. The American Dream is all about social mobility in a sense - the idea that anyone can make it.

I never came into life with any favours or privileges.

Inherited wealth, that is not what America is based upon.

Mitt Romney subscribes to the cynical logic that says the American dream belongs to some of us but not all of us.

In America, as opposed to the old country, success was based on merit.

Where the costs of entry are minimal, there is a wide avenue of opportunity for those with little or nothing, which is why football is just about the most democratic sport of all: African and Brazilian footballers compete on a level playing field with their rich white European counterparts.

You know some of the people in The Strokes, yeah, their parents had success - but we didn't live like yuppies.

I'm aware people will think I've had an easy way into a dream career. My view is, if anyone has opportunities, they'll take them. My surname opens doors, but those doors will slam firmly if I'm no good.

I didn't go to the right schools, didn't come from a well-known family, nor was I even remotely connected to a powerful publishing dynasty.

It is not easy for men to rise whose qualities are thwarted by poverty.

Some men will be always able to pay more for their children's education than others; and that those children will, inevitably, win in the struggle of life.

To be prosperous is not to be superior, and should form no barrier between men. Wealth ought not to secure the prosperous the slightest consideration.

In a thriving economy, birth need not be destiny.

Inequality is an inevitable product of capitalist activity, and expanding equality of opportunity only increases it—because some individuals and communities are simply better able than others to exploit the opportunities for development and advancement that capitalism affords.

We live in a system that espouses merit, equality, and a level playing field, but exalts those with wealth, power, and celebrity, however gained.

I reject the idea that the guy who comes out of Yale and goes to work in the projects in Newark is good, and the guy who goes to work for a white-shoe law firm is bad. We're all mountain rangers. We all have peaks and valleys.

I came from a middle-class family. My dad was a professor; my mom was a nurse. I didn't come from money, and I didn't come from circles of power. I didn't come from the country club; I came from the town park.

America is a meritocracy.

After a point, it doesn't matter where you come from. There are many star kids who haven't done well in the industry and rank newcomers who have done amazingly well.